Ziti and Blokus

For those of you who don't know, Wednesday night is game night in our house. There's an open invitation to all our friends and a few regulars show up almost every week. Sometimes I cook dinner for the group, sometimes we order out and sometimes we convene after meal time. This being home-cooked January, I decided to make a meal for everyone tonight. It was Alex's idea to make baked ziti, which worked out well because I wasn't sure how many people would be coming and it makes great leftovers. I don't use a recipe for this dish, so the amounts are approximate but here's the general idea:

Baked Ziti (or Penne, etc)
1 lb box dry pasta (ziti, penne, rigatoni, etc)
1 egg
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
garlic powder, oregano, dried basil to taste
1 jar prepared pasta sauce (sorry, I'm a cheater)
Cook pasta until al dente. While pasta is cooking, beat egg in large mixing bowl. Combine with ricotta, 1/2 cup mozzarella, parmesan and spices. Add cooked pasta and sauce and mix. Pour into 9x13 pan and cover with remaining mozzarella (I also broke up a few slices of provolone. Cook at 350 for ~30 minutes until heated through and cheese is bubbly.

To accompany the pasta, Mike made some Italian sausage and peppers. Though I didn't eat it, the boys seemed to really enjoy it. We also had some garlic bread and plenty of wine.

Here's a shot of Joey eating the cheesy goodness:

After dinner, we played a few rounds of Blokus. Even though Ihab just learned the game tonight, he got the hang of it and turned out to be fierce competition.